marketing. social good. voice-overs. life.

The month of November is the JetBlue For Good Month. To commemorate JetBlue’s continued commitment to giving back and doing good, the carrier is adding a new mystery destination to its network this November, dubbed, “Destination Good.” From October 16 through October 26, those who are keen on joining JetBlue for a volunteer experience can #CheckInForGoodOnline at https://jetbluecheckinforgood.com or at JetBlue’s pop-up kiosks in surprise locations in Los Angeles and New York City to enter for a chance to partake in the service trip.

This will be a 4-day service trip to Destination Good, scheduled to depart on Giving Tuesday, November 27, from New York’s JFK International Airport. To up the fun factor, contest winners will not know where they are headed until the morning of November 27. JetBlue will be picking up to 50 do-gooders to volunteer alongside some of JetBlue’s crewmembers and non-profit partners. Successful contest entrants will be notified by November 20, 2018. The chosen do-gooders can each bring a guest along.

During their stay in Destination Good, all participants will engage in daily volunteer and service activities that emphasize on the three pillars of the JetBlue For Good platform: (i) youth and education; (ii) community, and (iii) the environment.

No purchase is necessary for one to enter the Destination Good contest. Keep in mind the contest is open only to legal residents of the 50 U.S. states and D.C. who are 18-years-old or older and have a valid passport.

Those who enter the contest are required to answer philanthropic-related questions and their answers will be judged to determine who the winners will be. Contest entrants have to fill out a short questionnaire about what ‘Good’ they have to declare. For starters, JetBlue is looking for passionate souls who enjoy philanthropy and volunteering – regardless if one is a newbie or experienced volunteer.

Taking place on October 11, and with ads and content aimed at encouraging education, career-role models and mentoring, organizations hope to bring awareness to the many ways the world needs to uplift young women.

Mattel’s Barbie is introducing the Dream Gap Project, an initiative it hopes will raise awareness of ways girls are blocked from reaching their potential. The company cites research showing that by age 5, girls are less likely to view themselves and other girls as either smart or competent.

A launch video stars a handful of young girls talking about the many ways they inadvertently undermine daughters: They are twice as likely to Google “Is my son gifted?” than they are “Is my daughter gifted?” for example, and far less likely to give girls science-related toys.

The effort also includes a collaboration with New York University associate professor Andrei Cimpian for a two-year post-doctoral fellowship, focusing on the Dream Gap in girls between the ages of 5 and 7. And the brand, which generated plenty of buzz with the launch of its “Inspirational Women” collection earlier this year, including fencers, boxers, snowboarders and artists, says it plans to highlight at least 10 “empowering female” role models around the world each year.

Meanwhile, Unilever’s Dove is debuting The Girl Collective, “a sisterhood on a mission to raise the self-esteem of girls everywhere,” with a vow to reach an additional 20 million girls with messages “that can protect them from the outside voices that influence how they feel about their appearance.” Shonda Rhimes, the filmmaker who has been partnering with the brand on Real Beauty Production videos, hosted the kickoff event on Facebook Live.

Nonprofits are talking about Day of the Girl, too. Girls Inc., citing research that a third of girls between 7 and 10 say their appearance is the most important thing about them, is celebrating the day with the launch of “Pretty,” a book that urges girls to be pretty brave, pretty confident and pretty strong.

It’s also got a social component, using #theprettyconversation and #selfworthies, pointing out that 35% of girls worry about being tagged in photos that make them seem unattractive, and 65% agree that ads and media set unrealistic standards.

And Plan International is sponsoring girls’ takeovers around the world, including a #DayOfTheGirl emoji for Twitter. Its U.K. division is using the occasion to launch a new video campaign aimed at preventing street harassment.

Square Enix will also host a livestream of “Life is Strange: Before the Storm” featuring voice actors Rhianna DeVries (Chloe), Kylie Brown (Rachel), and Katy Benz (Steph) from the game on the stream. The episodic game deals with adolescent friendships, mental health, and social issues, making it an ideal title to stream for the conversations taking place around the campaign.

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and as the common start of the back to school season it is notably “characterized by transition as young adults return to school or depart for college for the first time, making the Seize the Awkward message of checking in with a friend especially timely and relevant,” according to the press release.

Lisa Sherman, president and CEO of the Ad Council commented on the Twitch partnership as well as the other Seize the Awkward campaign movements with other digital partners like Reddit, Shine, and Tumblr.

“This extraordinary group of leading digital, social and experiential partners will give us the opportunity to reach teens and young adults where they are at a time when they may need to hear this critical message most,” said Sherman. “Each of our September activations offers a unique opportunity to authentically connect with young adults and provide the necessary resources to start important and potentially life-saving conversations.”

Rihanna has written an op-ed for The Guardian to ask others to join her in the fight for universal education.

“The lack of access to education for children around the world is a massive problem, but that does not mean we should throw up our hands in despair and surrender,” Rihanna said in the piece. “Instead, we need to take on as much of the challenge as we can manage to set an example and see the difference. This is what has driven me to prioritize global education in my philanthropy and advocacy work.”

While growing up in Barbados, Rihanna added, she now realizes she took her access to education for granted. In many parts of the world, children are prevented from that same access due to poverty, politics, war, sexism, and more. To help make these inequalities a thing of the past, Rihanna has renewed her call for support for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and their efforts toward fighting the education deficit around the world.

“We are grateful for the generous contributions of those such as the EU and France, and countries that doubled their contributions such as Canada and Ireland,” she said of her GPE ambassador role and this year’s GPE financing conference. “I look forward to seeing additional contributions from countries I know can step up even more, such as Germany and Japan, and seeing those that didn’t contribute – the Netherlands, Finland and New Zealand add their support to help us reach our target.”

Rihanna also discussed her own Clara Lionel Foundation and called on readers to join her in hitting up world leaders and politicians on Twitter and elsewhere to share the message.

Uber has spent the past year trying to convince customers that it has put its problematic reputation in the past. And what better way to usher in a new era than with a complete rebrand?

Uber has unveiled an entirely new look that will eventually feature a fresh, custom-made typeface, new colors, a redesigned in-app look including animations and more.

The company says this rebrand reflects Uber’s transition from “San Francisco startup to a global company,” particularly one that’s become a “platform of mobility.”

The company is doing away with the symbol that’s been featured on its app icon for the past two years. Through the aforementioned internal research, the team discovered that most consumers don’t actually associate the symbol with Uber, and that drivers would even turn around the decal that featured it to the other side, which read “Uber,” so passengers could have an easier time recognizing their cars.

Uber found its strength in three things: Its name, the U and the color black. So in creating a new logo, they leaned into those features.

That new logo is a simple wordmark that (naturally) reads “Uber,” with a capital U, in Uber Move, a typeface that was custom-designed for the brand. Previously they’d been using Clan Pro font, which, though they licensed it, they still had to share with other brands that did the same.

In terms of color, Uber is zeroing in on black and white in its new branding. However, there are several secondary colors, all of which take inspiration from transportation, and feature bold-but-soft hues of purple, green, red, yellow, orange and brown. A bright shade of blue is the “safety color,” inspired by the associations of blue with security in everyday life: The United Nations, for example, as well as the blue safety lights that are omnipresent on college campuses. This blue will feature more heavily in the app, as an accent color.

The hope is that this rebranding will make Uber’s presence is a bit clearer to riders, drivers and potential customers. Uber’s No.1 imperative in the redesign is “seeing Uber and knowing Uber,”

From finding highly engaged volunteers to donor cultivation to an offering of several NPO specific tools, it’s one of the best social media platforms to support individual giving efforts. I had a blast chatting it up with Taylor Shanklin of Pursuant about, “How to use LinkedIn for Your Nonprofit.”

The controversy surrounding Nike Inc.’s new Colin Kaepernick ad is a surprise to no one. And in spite of the backlash, it’s probably pretty good for the brand. In less than 24 hours since Kaepernick first revealed the spot on Twitter, Nike received more than $43 million worth of media exposure, the vast majority of it neutral to positive, according to Apex Marketing Group. That far outweighs the risk of alienating some customers, said Bob Dorfman, a sports marketing executive at Baker Street Advertising.

The campaign is just the first step in Nike’s new partnership with Kaepernick, an extension of a deal he’s had with the company since he entered the NFL in 2011. The ad features his face along with the slogan, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Kaepernick hasn’t been on a roster since 2016, after he started kneeling for the national anthem to protest racism and police brutality in the U.S.

The company also knows its customers. Two-thirds are younger than 35, and it’s an ethnically diverse consumer base, according to NPD Group.

As part of the new campaign, the company plans to release a Kaepernick-inspired shoe and t-shirt and will donate money to the quarterback’s “Know Your Rights” educational campaign, according to the New York Times.

The quarterback is currently suing the league, accusing its owners of colluding to keep him out of the league. Last week an arbitrator said Kaepernick had enough evidence to take the suit to trial.

The NFL has responded by saying it is committed to “dialogue, understanding and unity.”

“The social justice issues that Colin and other professional athletes have raised deserve our attention and action,” the league said in a statement.